Is Elitist Bubble Finally Starting To Pop?

Some cracks are finally appearing in the media narrative that Donald Trump voters – indeed, all grassroots Republicans fed up with the party establishment — are ignorant, angry racists and xenophobes.

Columnist David Brooks, who is what passes for a conservative at the New York Times, actually admitted that he failed as a journalist in not venturing out of his comfy safe space to the wilderness west of the Hudson and discovering that the people who dwell there are struggling with real problems, thanks to the open borders/crony capitalist policies of the Wall Street-to-D.C. elite.

Likewise, the New Yorker was stunned to find a Mexican-American Marine veteran was backing Trump and resented having to compete for jobs with illegal immigrants who ignore the laws his family complied with and demand rights they had to earn.

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Apparently, liberals who believe they harbor no racial preconceptions think all Hispanics are pro-illegal immigration.

And a writer for the snarky-left humor site Cracked.com, visited a Trump rally and admitted finding well-behaved, law-abiding citizens of all races, rather than a violent mob of Klansmen. Turns out the only KKK hoods at Trump rallies are on leftist protesters.

It’s similar to what liberal journalists would’ve found at Tea Party rallies, if they’d bothered to attend one rather than just smear the participants as dumb racists.

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Of course, when you live in a bubble of superiority long enough, it’s hard to admit you misjudged the people you look down upon. Many of these mea culpas acknowledge that the voters are right about their wages being undermined, their jobs outsourced and the politicians they supported betraying them to do their big donors’ bidding.

But then they reassure readers that those people still aren’t as enlightened as they are. For instance, one article noted a voter’s worries about Mexican gang crime, but quickly added that studies show crime among illegal immigrants is lower on average than in the general population.

It reminds me of the sitcom Frasier, when he and Niles would condescendingly explain to their father that they were right about something he knew far more about because they had gone to Harvard.

Dismissing others’ real-life experiences as “anecdotal evidence” while pointing to academic studies on crime stats doesn’t sway someone who lives in a border state and deals every day with rising Mexican gang violence. Just as economists lauding the Obama recovery don’t impress people who are working three part-time jobs because they can’t find one full-time job that will support a family.

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There’s a name for that tactic: “The appeal to authority.” It’s also known as a logical fallacy.

In 2008, I got hammered by groups like the Club For Growth for warning that just because a guy with a corner office on Wall Street got a $20 million bonus, that didn’t mean the economy was healthy. I was traveling America, talking to farmers and factory workers and store owners, who told me they were barely treading water. You would think the ensuing economic collapse would have burst the elitists’ bubble. But eight years on, even as justified public discontent has mounted to the point that the elites are finally being forced to admit reality, they’re still condescendingly trying to wish it away.

I guess it’s hard to see clearly when you’re looking through a cloud of smug.

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